Winter Garden Wedding

Winter weddings are beautiful, there is no doubt. Crisp colours, cool temperatures, and the spark of love in the air – what a fantastic combination! Winter wedding venues in York can make your nuptials all that you imagine they’d be.

After all, with incredible places to get married, like a centuries-old pub with a crackling fireside wedding space to an ancient cathedral decked out in lights, a York wedding in winter sounds like a dream come true.

What to Look for in a Venue for a Winter Garden Wedding

When it comes to finding a wedding venue for a winter garden wedding, the biggest clue is in the name – you need a garden atmosphere. Beautifully maintained and thriving outdoor greenery is a huge part of this theme and in winter, this isn’t always a guarantee.

To help your search, maybe start to think about big stately homes or wedding venues with grounds that they hire out for events. Chances are these will be maintained throughout the year for any indoor weddings that want outdoor photos. Alternatively, head to the woods and go for a more rustic feel to your winter garden wedding.

Wedding Invitations for a Winter Garden Wedding

Wedding invitations are often overlooked when it comes to wedding preparation but it’s an important first look at your wedding theme for your guests. Especially if it’s an outdoor wedding in winter, this needs to be communicated so that your guests can buy outfits that are suitable for the wedding venue.

Colour palette-wise, for a winter garden wedding, you’re likely looking at colder, natural hues like whites and blues, combined with a pop of festive colour like Christmas-influenced red berries and flowers. This should be echoed across your entire ceremony, and especially those all-important wedding invitations.

Bouquets & Boutonnieres for a Winter Garden Wedding

As you might already be aware, winter isn’t the best time for beautiful blooms and foliage. This being said, the magic floristry wizards still work their magic to supply you with outstanding fresh wedding bouquets and boutonnieres to add that pop of colour to your winter garden wedding.

With such a stark, natural backdrop to your wedding, it’s always good to stick with one main colour and play with textures to make something truly different. Winter garden weddings often lend themselves to a more boho look, so brightly coloured flower crowns are a good way to keep the theme throughout your look and your floral arrangements.

Dresses & Accessories for a Winter Garden Wedding

Okay, just because it’s a winter garden wedding does not mean you need to be dressed to the nines in furs like it’s Anna Karenina. At the end of the day it’s an outdoor wedding and on the whole outdoor weddings are more casual and laid back. You can have a heater or a wrap around shawl for the reception and the nerves will probably keep you warm.

In terms of accessories, keep it simple. Let the surrounding winter garden wedding venue do most of the talking for you. Especially if you’re opting for a brightly coloured flower crowd, avoid loads and loads of jewellery – besides you’ll have that brand new ring to show off after the ceremony!

Wedding Photo Shoot Ideas for a Winter Garden Wedding

When it comes to a winter garden wedding there are a number of different avenues you can go down. It’s probably going to be an outdoor photo shoot to take advantage of the natural wintery setting and the garden magic around your wedding venue, so you’re going to want to be warm.

Think about a lot of cosy poses with you and your new groom, maybe have smores or a campfire to warm your hands around, showing off those shiny new wedding bands. If you’ve got snow, remember that’s a lot of white on white with a white wedding dress so bring in colour with your bouquets.

Portrait Props for a Winter Garden Wedding

For your portraits, you don’t need a ton of props with this gorgeously simplistic winter garden wedding theme. The landscape and the weather do a lot of the heavy lifting as do the flowers and foliage surrounding you in your garden venue.

That being said, you can lean into the winter aspect by sharing your groom’s jacket, using a patterned or textured wrap around blanket or hugging hot mugs of mulled wine or cider. The steam from the hot mugs will look really cool in the crisp winter air – just be careful not to spill any down your dress!

Ceremony Decor for a Winter Garden Wedding

In terms of ceremony decor for your winter garden wedding, there are a few things you can do. You can get a cosy vibe going by putting out blankets and throws on the chairs for your guests so they don’t get chilly during the ceremony itself – during the reception they’ll be dancing so warmth is guaranteed.

You can also have some fire pits around the ceremony as long as there aren’t any flowy dresses or dangling decorations that might catch fire. If you’re looking for something less flammable you can stick with the reds from the flowers and get some drapery working down the aisle.

Wedding Reception Music and Entertainment for a Winter Garden Wedding

Obviously choosing your wedding reception music should be personal to you and your other half, but with a winter garden wedding you’re not necessarily going to want super upbeat and intense party music, nor are you going to probably want a brass band that makes it look a bit too close to Christmas.

For entertainment, there are a lot of options, but our personal favourite for this kind of winter garden wedding theme is a smores bar with campfires and warm alcoholic beverages. Everyone can get cosy and chat and bring a nice community vibe to your beautiful nuptials.

Favours & Gifts for a Winter Garden Wedding

For your winter garden wedding, favours should be seasonally appropriate. It’s a great opportunity to lean into your theme. Items like button press hand warmers, miniature liquor bottles to “keep them warm inside and out”, festive smelling candles – all of these items are great keepsakes of a winter garden wedding.

For the gifts for your wedding party, you can follow in the favour theme of winter warming gifts or you can go down the traditional jewellery route, and find necklaces or bracelets with a wintery or floral theme. You can get charms with snowflakes and poinsettias on them fairly easily online, so this might be a nice touch.

Outdoor Wedding Ideas for a Winter Garden Wedding

The clue is in the title of your wedding theme: winter garden. It’s pretty difficult to achieve a winter garden wedding at an indoor venue so all the advice so far in this article has been geared towards having your big day in the great outdoors.

Obviously, with it being winter, you have to prepare for the weather as best you can with heaters and some nearby cover, especially if you have elderly relatives coming to the wedding that might be more susceptible to the cold than you and your friends. Having a barn or marquee is a good idea as are warming fire pits.

Intimate, Wintry Garden Wedding

This intimate wedding inspiration shoot of Brisbane’s Just For Love Photography has delightful, wintry details set on a beautiful, outdoor lawn. Its compositions remind me of still life paintings with its rich, berry hues and dark backdrops. It also has a crazy sense of warmth that reminds one of crisp, perfect autumn evenings spent with the man you love!

From Kylie at Just For Love Photography – “Inspired by the crisp winter breeze and the warmth of winter love, a selection of Brisbane wedding vendors collaborated on this styled wedding inspiration shoot. Our hope was to demonstrate that a winter wedding can be an intimate and beautiful affair!

Credits: Photography: Just For Love Photography // Event Design: Willow Tree Creative // Floral Design: Fern Wedding Florist // Calligraphy: Floralovely Modern Calligraphy // Cake: Hansel and Gretel Cakes // MUA: Blissful Makeup // Wedding Dress: When Freddie Met Lilly // Models: Emma Bond & Wade Boyes // Submitted via Two Bright Lights // Venue: Private Residence in Brisbane, Queensland.